Metric Units/Transcript
Transcript Title text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby. Moby dressed like a king, stands in the middle of a bustling costume party. Tim dressed like a cow, shows up holding two glasses of chocolate milk. TIM: Sorry, all they had left in the fridge was chocolate milk. Moby beeps and slaps a glass out of Tim’s hand. TIM: Hey, what gives? Moby beeps. TIM: King Henry doesn't usually drink chocolate milk? Moby beeps. TIM: Yes, I know it's a metric thing, but what does that have to do with anything? A letter appears. Text reads as Tim narrates: Dear Moby, help! There are too many metric units… how can I remember them all? Thanks, Jorge. TIM: Oh. Hi, Jorge! You know, it might seem like there are a lot of units in the metric system. That's the decimal-based measurement system used by most of the world. A label appears, reading: metric system. A list of metric units appears, including: kilometer, centimeter, decimeter, millimeter, megameter, yottameter, nanometer, and picometer. TIM: But if you look closely at these units of length, you'll see that they're really just variations on the same unit. On-screen, the prefix of each unit fades, showing that each ends with the word, meter. TIM: That's one of the beauties of the metric system: you can scale any measurement up or down just by changing the unit's prefix. For length, that unit is the meter. On-screen, a ruler appears. A label reads: meter. TIM: For mass, it's the gram. On-screen, a scale appears. A label reads: gram. TIM: And for volume, most people use the liter. On-screen, a beaker appears. A label reads: liter. Moby beeps. TIM: Well, you could measure length with nothing but meters. But that's not very practical when we're talking about, say, the length of a human hair, or how far it is to the next town. On-screen, Tim tries to measure a hair on his head with a meter stick. A long road stretches into the distance, with a sign reading, Pismo Beach, 12,000 meters. TIM: To measure something that's much larger or smaller than a base unit, it’s easier to tack on a metric prefix! A label appears, reading, metric prefix. TIM: The prefix creates a new unit that’s a power of 10 bigger or smaller than the base unit. On-screen, two prefixes appear, reading, centi and kilo. Each combines with the unit, meter, to create the units, centimeter and kilometer. TIM: For example, a centimeter is one-hundredth as long as a meter: perfect for measuring that hair! An equation appears, reading, 1 centimeter equals 0.1 meters. The equation changes to, 7 centimeters equals 0.7 meters. TIM: And 1 kilometer equals 1,000 meters: ideal for measuring that road! An equation appears, reading, 1 kilometer equals 1,000 meters. The equation changes to, 12 kilometers equals 12,000 meters. Moby beeps. TIM: How many prefixes are there? More than you're ever likely to use! On-screen, a long list of metric prefixes appears. TIM: But don't stress about learning all of them; really, you just need to memorize the six most commonly-used prefixes. On-screen, the list of prefixes is reduced to six: kilo, hecto, deka, dessy, centi, and milli. Moby beeps. He holds two pitchers of chocolate milk. TIM: And lucky for you, Moby has the perfect way to do just that! Just memorize the sentence: King Henry doesn’t usually drink chocolate milk. The first letter of each word stands for a different prefix, except for usually, which is just a placeholder for whatever base unit you're using. On-screen, words from the sentence match up with prefixes: king with kilo; henry with hecto; doesn't with deka; usually with unit; drink with dessy; chocolate with centi; milk with milli. Moby beeps. TIM: Well, we already know that kilo means 1,000 and centi means one-hundredth. On-screen, numbers appear below the prefixes: 1,000 under kilo; and 0.1 under centi. TIM: As for the others: hecto means 100; deka means 10; dessy means one-tenth; and milli means one-thousandth. On-screen, numbers appear below the prefixes: 100 under hecto; 10 under deka; 0.1 under dessy; and 0.001 beneath milli. TIM: Notice anything about these values? Moby beeps. TIM: Right! Each prefix is exactly 10 times as big as the one to its right, and one-tenth as big as the one to its left. That makes it a breeze to convert from one unit to another! Moby beeps. TIM: I'll show you. Let's say you want to figure out how many milligrams are in 5 hectograms. On our handy prefix line, put your finger on the unit you’re starting from. On-screen, prefixes appear in a line from left to right: kilo, hecto, deka, unit, dessy, centi, milli. Tim’s finger points to hecto. The number, 5, appears above it. TIM: Then count the number of units your finger passes while moving to the unit you're converting to. One, two, three, four, five. On-screen, Tim's finger moves five units to the right, landing on milli. TIM: Now take your number, and move the decimal point the same number of places, in the same direction. And you add a 0 for each place the decimal moves. On-screen, the decimal point moves five spaces to the right. Five zeroes are added, so that 5 becomes 500,000. TIM: There you have it: 5 hectograms is the same as 500,000 milligrams. Moby beeps. TIM: Yes, it really is that simple! Just remember that King Henry doesn't usually drink chocolate milk, and you're good to go. Moby takes a drink from one of the pitchers of milk. TIM: I guess this is an unusual night for King Henry. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Science Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Math Transcripts